Police await medical examiner’s results in bizarre investigation

DAVID TAYLOR

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, July 17, 2008

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Police await medical examiner’s results in bizarre investigation

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Galena Park Police continue their investigation into a bizarre case that has caught national attention. A 16-year-old Galena Park girl, accompanied by one of her aunts, reported to police last Thursday, July 10, that her mother had forced her to take pills a month earlier to abort a pregnancy. Then she alleged her mother cut the umbilical cord and buried the 5-month-old fetus under a tree in their yard.

GP Police Chief Robert Pruett said that once the allegations were made, they drew up a Probable Cause writ to get a search warrant for the house. “We executed the search warrant around 5:30 p.m. that day,” said the chief. Before they could execute the warrant, the chief said they immediately put officers at the home in the 2100 block of 15th Street.

“That was just to make sure nothing disappeared or was moved until we got the search warrant back from downtown,” he said.

The teen told her aunt, Alma Perez, after the fact, that she had been threatened by her mother, Leticia Zamora, who was angry about the pregnancy.

“She told her she would beat her up if she didn’t take the pills to abort the baby,” said Perez. The teen was also sporting a black eye days earlier, said her aunt, that the teen alleges came from her mother.

While she sat in the station waiting to talk to police, the teen told her aunt that her mother was texting her on the cell phone to find out where she was and was threatening her.

“When I first found out about it, I reported it,” said Perez. “A few other people knew about it a week or so before. But, when her mom made her abort that baby, she could have hemorrhaged easily.”

Armed with the warrant, police went to the residence with the aunt and the girl. “The girl told us she looked out the window and saw her mother bury the fetus up under the tree on June 10,” said Pruett. “At that time, the fetus would have only been the size of a medium-sized cell phone,” he said.

Using spoons, officers carefully raked off small layers of the dirt and pushed it aside to look for the fetus. “They found roots that had been cut,” said the chief, “but no actual fetus.”

His explanation was the fetus could have been there and was moved or had completely deteriorated. The chief called in the Medical Examiner’s Office to remove the dirt to look for micro-samples of tissue that would leave DNA.

“We had three cadaver dogs here from HPD (Houston Police Department) and all three hit on the exact spot where we were digging,” he said.

The mother willingly showed the police where she had buried the fetus. Her attorney also confirmed to police by phone that they were digging in the right spot.

By 11 p.m., the medical examiner had loaded a small box, containing the soil samples, into the van and left the scene.

The chief said the case for murder would be hard to prove without a body, but that there is evidence to point to the validity of the teen’s story. “Texas Children’s Hospital has confirmed that the girl had recently given birth,” said Pruett.

Following her release from the hospital, she was placed in the care of Child Protective Services. She was later placed in the temporary custody of another aunt.

According to police, Zamora refused to answer subsequent questions on the advice of her attorney. Assistant Police Chief R.D. Bates said she was not under arrest and was allowed back onto the property late Thursday night after the scene had been cleared.

The investigation continues for detectives. “We are doing some footwork, interviewing hearsay witnesses and more,” said the chief. The only charge being considered against Zamora at the time is child endangerment.

Key evidence could come from the result of the medical examiner’s report, but the chief said it would still be tough producing enough evidence for a murder charge.

“It’s an ongoing investigation and it will take some time,” he said.

The teen is despondent and withdrawn, according to her aunt. “She’s in a daze,” Perez says, and she knows the consequences of her reporting the incident to the police.